We've been here before

This is not the first or second time that banking elites have sought to seize control of our monetary system. It is the third. [1]

Our first central bank, The Bank of the United States, was narrowly voted out of existence in 1811. Our second central bank, The Second Bank of the United States, went down kicking and screaming in 1836. Sadly, our third central bank, The Federal Reserve, was created 77 years later (in 1913) and has been with us ever since.

But as our history clearly shows, the Fed only exists because we permit it to. The hard-fought battle that brought the Second Bank of the United States to its knees provides us all the proof we need.

You see, we've already covered the danger of handing over control of our nation's money supply to "unscrupulous, yet highly intelligent bankers." We've covered how the Federal Reserve System has been used, and is being used, against us. What we haven't covered is what can happen when just one effective leader turns on the financial elite, bites the hand that feeds Washington, and (with the help of an informed and fed-up citizenry) engages the enemy head on. So, let's cover that now.

The Second Bank of the United States

(Nicholas Biddle vs. Andrew Jackson)

The Second Bank of the United States was created in 1816. It was granted a 20-year charter (federal license) and was headed by Nicholas Biddle. Biddle represented:

[T]he archetype of the new Eastern Establishment: wealthy, arrogant, ruthless, and brilliant. He had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of only thirteen, and, as a young man entering business, had fully mastered the secret science of money. With the ability to control the flow of the nation's credit, Biddle soon became one of the most powerful men in America.[2]

Using the power granted by Congress, Biddle and his merry band of monetary scientists got straight to work. By first heavily inflating the money supply and then suddenly, drastically, and deliberately constricting it, they successfully wiped out many of their competitors in the banking industry. (And that translates into a lot of Americans losing every penny of their savings along with their homes and other possessions.)

In fact, the Second Bank of the United States had the distinct honor of handing our newly formed republic its first nationwide depression. The ensuing chaos became known as The Panic of 1819.

Starting in July of 1818 ... the BUS (Bank of the United States) ... began a series of enormous contractions, forced curtailment of loans, contractions of credit in the south and west. ... The contractions of money and credit swiftly brought to the United States its first widespread economic and financial depression. ... The result of this contraction was a rash of defaults [and] bankruptcies of business and manufacturers.

-- Murray Rothbard[3]

The pressure placed upon the state banks deflated the economy drastically, and as the money supply wilted, the country sank into severe depression.

-- Herman Krooss[4]

As the effects of The Panic of 1819 took hold (hundreds of thousands out of work, unemployment exceeding 70% in some areas, thousands placed in debtor's prison), public sentiment again turned toward the honest-money principles long advocated by Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, the Jeffersonian Republicans (formerly the champions of honest money) had abandoned their post. It took nearly a decade before one man, Andrew Jackson, was able to gain power and defend those principles once again.

Elected president in 1828, Jackson pledged to resurrect honest money, abolish The Second Bank of the United States, and (in so doing) rid our nation of a threat he deemed "more formidable and dangerous than a naval and military power of the enemy."[5] But ridding America of this "formidable and dangerous" threat would be no easy task. Jackson was in for a war.

The Bank had a lot of friends in Congress, and Biddle regularly rewarded those friends with assistance in the business world. Or as Congressman John Randolph put it: "Every man you meet in this House ... with some rare exceptions ... is either a stockholder, president, cashier, clerk or doorkeeper, runner, engraver, paper maker, or mechanic in some other way to a bank. ... The banks are so linked together with the business of the world that there are very few men exempt from their influence."[6]

Biddle had fought hard to obtain his position of power. From his scholastic achievements (completing his University of Pennsylvania studies by age 13 and graduating Princeton, valedictorian, at age 15),[7] to his involvement in creating the Second Bank of the United States, to the privileges he now enjoyed as its president, he wasn't going to simply put it all down and walk away.

Andrew Jackson had fought hard as well, but his battles were more literal. He'd been tortured and starved as a British prisoner during the American War for Independence. He survived the loss of his immediate family (orphaned at 14). He'd been shot in countless gun fights and still carried bullets around in his body. He wasn't going to roll over for anyone, especially a privileged class of "bankers" looking to take control of the country he helped create.

Each man knew the other's aim; the stakes couldn't be higher, and the lines were drawn. (There would be no peaceful compromise.) Although the war between these two powerful men technically began when Jackson was elected President in 1828, it took a while for things to really heat up.

In 1832, Biddle went in for the kill. The charter for his bank wasn't set to expire until 1836, but in a brilliant political move, he persuaded his friends in Congress to pass a bill granting his bank an early renewal.

With Jackson up for reelection, Biddle assumed Jackson wouldn't defy Congress and veto the bill. (The controversy could easily cost him a second term as president.)

By Biddle's calculations, this one move put Jackson in checkmate. The Bank would coast into 1836 with another 20-year charter already signed into law, and there was little (if anything) Jackson could do about it. Sadly, for Biddle, he calculated wrong. The law granting early renewal only infuriated Jackson. The president stood his ground.

Jackson decided to place his entire political career on the line for this one issue, and, with perhaps the most passionate message ever delivered to Congress by any President, before or since, he vetoed the measure.[8]

Congress, the banks, speculators, industrialists, and segments of the press; these were the forces commanded by Biddle. But Jackson had a secret weapon which had never been used before in American politics. That weapon was a direct appeal to the electorate. He took his message on the campaign trail and delivered it in words well chosen to make a lasting impression.

He spoke out against a moneyed aristocracy which had invaded the halls of Congress, impaired the morals of the people, threatened their liberty, and subverted the electoral process. The Bank, he said, was a hydra-headed monster eating the flesh of the common man. He swore to do battle with the monster and slay it or be slain by it.[9]

Jackson had awakened the indignation of the American people. When the November ballots were cast, he received a mammoth vote of confidence. He received fifty-five per cent of the popular vote ... and eighty per cent of the vote in the electoral college. ... Jackson won the election, but the Bank had four more years to operate, and it intended to use those years to sway public sentiment back to its support. The biggest battles were yet to come.[10]

After Jackson won reelection, he wasted no time mounting his attack. He instructed his Treasury Secretary to put all future federal deposits in various state-run banks. Moreover, he ordered all federal expenses to be paid (first) out of the remaining funds still held in the Second Bank of the United States. With no new deposits coming in, and with the government's existing account drained to zero, the Bank would surely be crushed.

But Jackson's Treasury Secretary (Louis McLane) refused the order. Undeterred, Jackson replaced him with a new Treasury Secretary (William Duane) and instructed him to do the same. But Duane also refused the order, and, worse, he refused to resign! Not a problem. Duane received the following from the president himself: "Your further services as secretary of the Treasury are no longer required."[11] And with that, the third Treasury Secretary, Roger Taney, took his post. And federal funds began moving out of the Bank.

Convinced he finally had the monster where he wanted it, Jackson is reported to have said: "I have it chained[.] ... I am ready with the screws to draw every tooth and then the stumps. ... Mr. Biddle and his Bank [ought to be] quiet and harmless as a lamb in six weeks."[12] But the president's optimism was premature.

Biddle deliberately crashes the economy

Biddle responded, not like a lamb, but more like a wounded lion. His plan was to rapidly contract the nation's money supply and create another panic-depression similar to the one the Bank had created thirteen years earlier. This then could be blamed on Jackson's withdrawal of federal deposits, and the resulting backlash surely would cause Congress to override the President's veto.[13]

Historian Robert Remini writes:

Biddle counterattacked. He initiated a general curtailment of loans throughout the entire banking system.... It marked the beginning of a bone-crushing struggle between a powerful financier and a determined and equally powerful politician. ... [Biddle] knew that if he brought enough pressure and agony to the money market, only then could he force the President to restore the deposits. He almost gloated.

"This worthy President thinks that because he has scalped Indians and imprisoned Judges, he is to have his way with the Bank. He is mistaken.

"Nothing but widespread suffering will produce any effect on Congress.... Our only safety is in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction—and I have no doubt that such a course will ultimately lead to restoration of the currency and the re-charter of the Bank."[14]

What words are there to describe the amazing arrogance and depravity of such men? That they exist at all (and that we have handed them so much power) is enough to make any moral human being shudder in disgust.

With the well-being of millions of citizens in the palm of his hand, Biddle saw no obligation to protect them from harm. Rather, he sadistically tightened his grip. And after crushing enough families to cause "widespread suffering," he (backed by many in the press and Congress), pointed to Jackson as the culprit!

In no uncertain terms, Biddle and the Bank were put forward as the saviors, the only ones who could possibly fix the economy that Jackson had broken. And to help ease the suffering, they were ready, willing, and able to "assist." All they needed was for Congress to overrule Jackson, restore the deposits he'd removed, and re-charter the bank.

By the time Congress reconvened in December, in what was called the "Panic Session," the nation was in an uproar. Newspapers editorialized with alarm, and letters of angry protest flooded into Washington. ... [I]t began to look as though Biddle's plan would work. In the public eye, it was Jackson who was solely responsible for the nation's woes. It was his arrogant removal of Secretary Duane; it was his foolish insistence on removing the deposits; it was his obstinate opposition to Congress.

For one-hundred days a "phalanx of orators" daily excoriated the President for his arrogant and harmful conduct. ... [A] resolution of censure was introduced into the Senate, and on March 28, 1834, it was passed by a vote of 26 to 20. This was the first time that a President had ever been censured by Congress, and it was a savage blow to Jackson's pride.

The President rumbled around the White House in a fit of rage. "You are a den of vipers," he said to a delegation of the Bank's supporters. "I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out!"[15]

A less determined man would have surrendered, but Jackson only redoubled his efforts. Slowly but surely, public awareness grew that it was Biddle, not Jackson, who was to blame for the nation's suffering. Ironically, Biddle's giant ego, and equally big mouth, played a prominent role in exposing the truth.

Biddle was so proud of his brilliant plan to crash the economy, he openly bragged about it. And when people heard him brag, and then saw him actually implement the plan, they spoke out against what he had done. (Imagine that.)

The tables turned once and for all when the governor of the Bank's home state (George Wolf of Pennsylvania), publicly denounced both Biddle and the Bank. Within days, public sentiment turned permanently and passionately in support of Jackson.

In the House, Democrats introduced a series of resolutions to show support for the President's policy toward the Bank. A resolution stating the Bank "ought not to be re-chartered" passed with a vote of 134–82. That federal deposits in the Bank "ought not to be restored" passed with a vote of 118–103. That a special committee of Congress ought to investigate whether the Bank deliberately caused the economic crisis passed with a vote of 175–42! Jackson was vindicated. Even the Senate's vote of censure was eventually rescinded.

As for Biddle:

When the investigating committee arrived at the Bank's doors in Philadelphia armed with a subpoena to examine the books, Biddle flatly refused. Nor would he allow inspection of correspondence with Congressmen relating to their personal loans and advances. ... For lesser mortals, such action would have resulted in ... stiff fines or imprisonment. But not for Nicholas Biddle. Remini explains:

"The committeemen demanded a citation for contempt, but many southern Democrats opposed this extreme action, and refused to cooperate. As Biddle bemusedly observed, it would be ironic if he went to prison "by the votes of members of Congress because I would not give up to their enemies their confidential letters."[16]

The ending to this saga holds no surprises. The Bank's charter expired in 1836 and it was restructured as a state bank by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. After a spree of speculation in cotton, lavish advances to the Bank's officers, and the suspension of payment in specie, Biddle was arrested and charged with fraud. Although not convicted, he was still undergoing civil litigation when he died.[17]

Where do we stand today?

Congress has the power to abolish the Federal Reserve System, but our leaders have been ominously silent on this issue. It seems few in Washington are interested in cutting off the hand that feeds their insatiable appetite for money and power.

Each election, the pro-establishment candidates promise us change, but nothing ever changes, and nothing ever will until we take from them (and their masters) the power to create limitless piles of money. This money is not only inherently corrupt, it is the corrupting force destroying our country.

Today, the federal government of these "United States" is an abomination. It has more in common with the USSR of yesterday than the founding principles of a limited, lawful, servant government.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights were created to restrain corrupt and power-hungry men. Despite this, we watch as our "representatives" ignore the principles they swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend. Not even the illusion of accountability remains.

What Jackson fought so hard to prevent (a federal government that depends on, and is controlled by, an unelected banking class) has come to pass.

That said, if Jackson was able to wake the people up and stir them to action (despite the entrenched and mighty interests aligned against him), we can too. In fact, all evidence indicates the awakening has already begun.

The spirit of Jackson returns (and the people respond)

Prior to 2007, few people knew what the Federal Reserve System was, let alone had any idea why they should care.

That changed when an honest-money presidential candidate named Ron Paul came along and showed them the dangers of dishonest money. Just as Jackson before him, Ron Paul stood before millions of voters and said something they hadn't heard before: The Central Bank of the United States is a threat to our sovereignty, and it must be abolished.

Ron Paul's message of freedom and limited government (and the honest money necessary to restore and secure them both) drew young and old, black and white, Conservatives, Liberals, Independents, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and all stripes in between to his cause.

Tired of divisive/partisan distractions, informed voters joined forces to strike the root of our country's problems. They got organized, and soon a small army stood behind Paul and his message.

Needless to say, the "pro-establishment" elites were less than thrilled with Paul's efforts to undo all of their hard work. For months, his campaign was subjected to a nearly total media blackout. However, thanks to the internet, the "ignore him and nobody will know he exists" tactic didn't work.

Paul's message was not only getting out, it was sinking in. Online polls and other metrics (like how many people were visiting Paul's website, searching his name, and attending his rallies) showed support far greater than what the media's coverage implied.

When they couldn't ignore him, the pro-establishment media began marginalizing Paul and his supporters. They tried to link him to Nazi racists. They ran false stories claiming all of his online support was fraudulent — that it was coming from a handful of Internet spammers who were manipulating polls and search statistics. (That lie crumbled when his rallies and campaign coffers began bursting at the seams.)

In the debates, his opponents would get 10 minutes of time to speak for every three minutes of time he was given. Moderators, along with some of his opponents, openly mocked him and laughed out loud as he spoke. It was disgraceful, but telling. Only a fool would have doubted that there was a concerted effort to shut him down.

Despite all of this, Ron Paul raised over $33 million for his campaign. More impressive, nearly every penny came from individual donors like you and me, instead of the usual "special interests" looking to buy influence. By the end, he secured more than one million votes and even beat media darlings like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in multiple contests. But that's still not the most amazing part of this story.

What's most amazing is how quickly the people responded to Ron Paul's message of honest money and limited government. He announced his candidacy in March of 2007, and by December, he'd already raised $28 million, nearly $20 million of which came in the fourth quarter.[18]

The Establishment, with all its power and influence, barely slowed a grass-roots effort that had only one year to organize and grow. And in 2012, Ron Paul ran for president again and raised even more money,[19] proving that 2008 wasn't a fluke.

Around the world, anti-establishment candidates are no longer being laughed off the stage. Instead, they're gaining ground and getting elected. A major shift is happening right now before our very eyes.

Here is where you come into the picture

This Campaign for Liberty[20] is bigger than Ron Paul; it's bigger than you and me. It's even bigger than the United States.

Using their dishonest money, an unelected "intellectual elite and world bankers" are perverting governments around the world to serve their own ends. They're "arrogant, ruthless and brilliant," and they'll stop at nothing to finish what they have started. That is why we must stop them. And by exposing and destroying their greatest weapon, we will.

• It must not be felt that [the heads of the world's central banks] were themselves substantive powers [... ] They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the [investment bankers] who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down. -- Carroll Quigley[21]
• The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. [... ] The country is going through a repetition of Jackson's fight with the Bank of the United States — only on a far bigger and broader basis. -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to Edward Mandel House[22]
• Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States ... are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it. -- President Woodrow Wilson[23]
• By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. [... ] There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. -- John Maynard Keynes[24]